Searching for Sunshine

March 1, 2023
This charming collection is an ode to the nature found in New York City and the people who love, protect, and sustain it. Jain, who is originally from Delhi, explains in the introduction her own search for sunshine and love of green spaces. Using drawn journalism, a technique that combines on-site interviews, observations, and drawings to create a highly visual storytelling medium, Jain has crafted 14 profiles of both people and places. Each account begins with Jain's explanation of why and how she chose the person or place, followed by entries from the perspective of the one profiled. The interviews feature entomologists, foragers, and herbalists as well as a cemetery, an urban-farming-and-sustainability program that serves incarcerated individuals, and more. A highlight of this collection are the vibrant illustrations splashed on every page. Some pages feature multiple smaller sketches, like the stages of bud growth or an illustrated quote, while other drawings are the focus of a double-page spread. There is much to savor in this collection of conversations about the power of plants and how they connect us.

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April 1, 2023

With text and vibrant images, illustrator and designer Jain (Under the Cosmos) explores how a variety of people experience working with plants and how nature affects their lives and happiness. In addition to sharing her own life experiences with nature as a child in India and in New York City, where she lives now, she also interviews botanists, horticulturists, a city planner, a florist, a forager, an herbalist, a formerly incarcerated person, an entomologist, an ethnobotanist, a curator of a design museum, the CEO of an online plant-subscription service, and visitors to New York's Union Square Greenmarket, all of whom share insights and opinions about their professional roles and nature. Jain illustrates these interviews with her own paintings, which include portraits of the interviewees and images of them at work, plus depictions of landscapes, plants, and scientific specimens, often made on location. VERDICT A charming, fascinating look at a range of jobs and the ways people can experience nature in a city. The beautiful, vividly colored illustrations will likely appeal to nature- and art-lovers, city-dwellers interested in the outdoors, and artists.--Sue O'Brien

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